A local or remote instance of SQL Server can be used with DPM. When specifying remote instance, a Domain Account is used to connect to the database. This account must be a Local Administrator and a member of the sysadmin role in the remote SQL instance. The Local Administrator privilege can be removed after installation.

A clustered instance of SQL Server cannot be used because SQL Server Reporting Services is required on the SQL Instance

One of the first configuration tasks is to add Disks to the Storage Pool, to do this, attach disks to the DPM server and bring them online. Do not format the drive. Then Add disks using the Management workspace within DPM.

DPM requires disks that are dedicated to data protection. DPM can be installed on the OS disk or on a separate disk, but the disk that DPM is installed on, cannot be used to store protected volumes.

Disks added to Storage Pools will be changed to dynamic disks

Install and configure protection agents on each computer that will be protected

Configure protection groups

A protection group is a collection of servers that share the same protection configuration. In the example below, I am going to create a Protection Group for our Domain Controllers and add the first Domain Controller to that protection group.